Part-time college faculty fight for better pay and working conditions

A University of Akron decision to limit part-time faculty to under 30 hours a week sparked a protest earlier this month.

Part-time instructors, who now do much of the teaching on many college campuses, are fed up with what they say are poverty wages and for the first time have organized in Ohio.

Known as adjunct professors,their issues over working conditions have been brewing for years as colleges have increasingly turned to adjuncts to teach classes. By some accounts, part-timers and other non-tenured faculty comprise more than 70 percent of the instructional workforce nationally -- a reverse of the trend decades ago when most instructors were tenured or on the tenure track.

Salaries of full-time faculty, by comparison, range from a median of $47,000 for a non-tenure track position, to about $116,000 a year, on average, for a full professor. Those numbers come from the latest pay report of the American Association of University Professors.

Tensions escalated recently after some colleges around the country said they will cut courseloads and the hours of adjuncts in order to avoid having to pay for health insurance. Under the federal Affordable Care Act, colleges would be required as of next year to provide health coverage to employees who work more than 30 hours a week

The University of Akron told faculty in April that it was limiting adjuncts' hours because it cannot afford to take on millions of dollars more in health-care costs. The move prompted the Ohio Part-Time Faculty Association, the new group advocating pay equity, to stage its first protest earlier this month.

The rally on the Akron campus drew adjuncts from other area universities, including Stark State College in North Canton, which is limiting adjuncts to 29 hours a week so it doesn't have to pay health benefits under the federal law.

Lakeland Community College also has told its part-time faculty they will belimited to 29 hours a week, which includes class preparation time, grading and answering student e-mails. But the college said in a statement Friday that most of its part-time faculty would not be affected.

At Baldwin Wallace University, adjuncts will be limited to nine credit hours per semester, said spokesman George Richard.

The moves have triggered debate over calculations used to determine outside-classroom hours that go into teaching. At Stark State, it has led some part-timers to under-report their hours so they don't get fired, said Mike Lyndall, an instructor there who took part in the Akronrally.

Maria Maisto, an adjunct English instructor and organizer of the Ohio Part-Time Faculty Association, said the limit on part-timers' hours is the latest in a number of grievances. The association -- affiliated with a national group she heads called The New Faculty Majority -- has no collective bargaining rights, but it's trying to generate public awareness and spur talks with university administrators.

"We're pushing for a livable wage," said Maisto. "And certainly due process. When you're fired here, when you are non-renewed, you have no ability to contest that."

Universities say the growing use of adjuncts is an economic necessity as state support of higher education has eroded.

"If you hire tenured faculty at age 30, you're potentially giving them a 50-year job guarantee," said Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education, which represents universities. "Colleges and universities are looking, like most employers, for flexibility."

The shift to part-time faculty has been particularly pronounced at public community colleges. For instance,U.S. Department of Education data show that 10 percent of the Cuyahoga Community College faculty was part time, non-tenure track in 1995. The percentage grew to 76 percent by 2009.

Teachers filling the part-time jobs in many cases are PhD's competing for a shrinking number of full-time faculty positions. Some adjuncts have other jobs and teach one or two courses to supplement their income. But some carry courseloads comparable to full-time faculty.

Evan Chaloupka, an adjunct English instructor, said hetaught eight courses at Lakeland and several other colleges this past academic year, earning less than $20,000.

"It's the Walmart model," said William Sledzik, an associate professor at Kent State University who writes a blog on topics including higher education. "We keep our labor costs at a minimum, and in doing so we're able to maximize profit out of each section."

Sledzik has blogged that overuse of poorly paid adjuncts cheats students. Some critics point to a study published in the Journal of Higher Education in 2006 that showed graduation rates suffered at public community colleges when they relied heavily on part-time faculty.

But Sledzik acknowledges colleges are in a tight spot financially.

Hartle of the American Council on Education said colleges have had to reduce personnel expenses.

"If 75 percent of your budget is faculty and staff, you better think long and hard about how to address that and maintain a quality institution," Hartle said.

Maistro said association members are expecting other institutions, including Tri-C, to announce mandatory workload reductions to avoid health insurance requirements.

Tri-C spokesman Al Moran said the college is exploring its options, but has not decided whether to reduce adjuncts' hours.

At Cleveland State University, spokesman Joe Mosbrook said most adjuncts don't teach enough course hours to fall under the health-care law. But the university will not impose restrictions on adjuncts' hours, he said.

University of Akron officials said budget pressures forced them to limit part-time instructors to eight credit hours per semester next fall. The university is facing a $26.7 million deficit next year.

Without the limit, Akron said it would take on more than $4 million in additional health care costs.

About 400 of Akron's 1,014 part-timers would be affected by the mandatory limits. As a result of the policy, the university is looking to hire 200 additional adjuncts for next fall to offsetreduced courseloads.

"We're looking at a budget gap we need to manage," Provost Mike Sherman said in a recent interview. "If we didn't manage to that part-time definition, there would be 400 part-timers we'd be obligated to provide health care to."

Kent State University issued a statement saying the administration is still exploring implications of the federal health-care law.

"The university has not taken any actions or made any decisions related to the Affordable Care Act that would impact faculty's assignments, hours, or requirements," the statement said. "Personnel actions taken at other institutions will not influence decisions made at Kent State University."

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